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by UntoldStories113
Summary: It was utterly pointless to try and force people to change their opinions on things which had been established facts for decades. He should know. He had spent the greater part of his life fighting a losing battle. (Post-MU, Pre-MI, mild spoilers for Monsters University)
1. Underexposure

**Timeline note:** Set about a year after Sulley and Mike become a Scare team.

* * *

"Look at that, Sul, that's another full canister! You're in _incredible_ form today!" Mike barely let Sulley close the door behind himself before babbling at him, but judging by the huge grin on his friend's face, he did not mind terribly much.

"Couldn't have done it without you!" he declared. The words were almost lost to Mike in all the ruckus their colleagues were making around them, but there was no mistaking the way Sulley was grabbing the top of his head as if to ruffle his non-existent hair.

"Now, _really_, Sul!" Mike scoffed, prying himself out of the grip to quickly attach a new canister to the Door Station; while it felt amazing to know how much his friend relied on him, the guy was _not_ giving himself enough credit. "It's not _just_ the training! You're a freaking _natural_!" Almost as an afterthought, he turned away and hurried over to the station to switch off the power to the door and call another one. "Besides, it wasn't just me, Waternoose trained you as well!"

"Not as much as you did," Sulley insisted, then halted. "But, yeah, that helped a lot, too. There were a few completely _amazing_ Scares I've never seen in any textbook. Really, you should have come along."

Mike flinched, and he hoped dearly that his friend had not noticed. "I wasn't invited, Sul," he pointed out, keeping his voice as level as he could. "Waternoose wanted to train _you_, not both of us. There's no point in training assistants." The truth was, he would have given _anything_ for a personal training session with a former Scarer. Well, technically, Professor Knight had been just that, but he had never given any of his students one-on-one lessons. Still, it was exactly as Mike had just stated - there _was_ no point in training assistants.

"I'm sorry," Sulley said quietly. Dammit, of _course_ he had noticed.

Now that the next door had arrived, Mike had no excuse to be facing his station any longer, so he turned around, trying his best to keep the hurt out of his expression. "What for? It's not like you scheduled that meeting." Was his voice shaking?

As dense as he could be in terms of emotions sometimes, he could clearly see the awareness in Sulley's gaze, but to his friend's credit, he made no further comment. Instead, he took a quick peek into the new file to assess the kid's fears and then approached the door. He was about to enter the human world, but not without first giving Mike a friendly nudge and a smile. A moment later, he was gone.

Mike quietly swore to himself. It had been _years_. Had he not told himself that giving up on his dream was okay? Why was this still so hard? Why was being so happy with what Sulley had accomplished not enough?

He knew Sulley was good with this kid, but it always took his friend a while to sneak around in its room. Mike was about to already get another canister in foresight, but on his way to fetch it, he spotted Waternoose, coming over to their station - and his boss was actually _waving_ at him!

Feeling a little glued to the spot, Mike waited until he was close enough. "Mr. Waternoose," he greeted politely.

"Michael," his boss returned in his usual pleasant tone. "Say, where's James?"

Ah, of course it was that. Immediately, Mike was annoyed at himself for assuming that _he_ was actually important for once. Careful not to let it show, though, he pointed one thumb at the door. "In there." This was probably about some sort of training again.

"Of course, of course," Waternoose chuckled, then turned around, and now Mike saw the pink-skinned woman that had come with him. "This will only take a moment."

Mike recognized her immediately. "Hi, Lane," he greeted.

She blinked her three eyes at him. "Say, do I know you?"

With a little chuckle, he gave a shrug. "No idea, actually. I just know you took the photos in my yearbook." And of course, he had seen her take a couple of them; she had never let a crowd get in the way of a good picture, or even anything as insignificant as, say, decency.

But if she was here, Mike thought he knew what this was about. And if he was right, this was going to be _awesome_!

Waternoose was frowning, apparently about to ask a question, but, thankfully, the door opened at that precise moment and Sulley got back onto the Scare Floor. "Hey, Mike, I…" But of course, he had immediately spotted their company. "Mr. Waternoose!" he exclaimed. "What can we do for you, sir?"

"James!" Waternoose grabbed his arm, then also grabbed Lane's and drew them both closer to each other. "I'd like you to meet Lane Picca! She works for Vanity Scare."

Mike silently went to cut the power to the door; this sounded as if it would take a while.

"Ms. Picca," Sulley greeted; he did not seem to remember her. Or maybe he had never had reason to notice her - Mike knew for a fact that his friend had never read that yearbook as extensively as he had.

"Hi, Sulley," she returned. She did remember him. But then, who did not?

"James," Waternoose went on before Sulley could ask, "this year's Scare Cards are going to be produced soon, and thus, we need a good picture of you."

That had been rather abrupt - at least for Sulley; Mike was pleased to discover his hunch had been right on the mark. But his friend had gone rigid, staring at both their boss and Lane in turn. "I… what?"

Waternoose chuckled at his reaction. "James, your Scare Card! There's one for _every_ Scarer!"

Mike, of course, had been anticipating this for months; actually, he had been actively looking forward to it for what felt like a small eternity. His face split into a completely _giddy_ grin at the thought of getting his hands on a Scare Card of _Sulley_! That one would definitely receive a special place among his collection. Maybe he should put it on display somewhere?

There was, of course, the tiniest little pang of wistfulness at not getting one of himself, but, hey, this was a really close second.

"Um, wow," Sulley mumbled. "I, er, I wasn't expecting that."

"You should have paid attention to the passage of time," Mike could not help but to joke.

Waternoose, however, completely ignored his interjection. "Anyway, the photo shoot will be sometime next week; I just wanted to introduce you. After all, this needs to be a really special picture, with you being Rookie of the Year and all."

"It's gonna be fantastic," Lane promised.

Yeah, the Rookie of the Year thing. Mike still remembered the small ceremony, with both of them receiving awards for their great first season. That was one of the few times he had felt as if he truly belonged in this whole Scaring business.

Sulley should have been happy about the picture. He should have jumped up and down in joy, causing a small earthquake on the Scare Floor with his sheer size and throwing all monsters in the near vicinity off balance. But instead, his expression visibly clouded. "What about Mike?"

Mike blinked. Yeah, what about him?

Apparently, Waternoose was just as confused as he was. "What do you mean?"

Sulley frowned at him. "I wasn't Rookie of the Year! _We_ were _Rookies_ of the Year, plural form!"

Waternoose was blinking now. "Well, yeah, but they don't make Scare Cards of assistants," he pointed out.

"Sulley, what are you doing?" Mike whispered.

Sulley ignored the question to abruptly glare at their boss. "Well, they should!" he spat. "This isn't fair! Mike is not my assistant anyway, he's my _trainer_! He's way better than I am at almost everything of that stuff! I am _nothing_ without him!"

Mike was not quite sure whether to feel elated about Sulley's opinion of him or horrified at the way he was speaking to their boss in a situation where he absolutely could not afford it. "Sul, this isn't about test scores, this is about the actual job! And I'm not _part_ of the job!" Did Sulley really have to go and warm that up again? Did he have no idea how much that fact still hurt? He had seemed so perceptive just a short while ago!

"James," Waternoose cut in, sounding a lot more subdued now, "I realize how you feel about this, but I don't think they'd want to change their system."

"They already changed it!" Sulley insisted hotly, and he was drawing looks from nearby Scarers and assistants now. "If they were not going to accept the fact that I can't do this without Mike, they shouldn't have named him Rookie of the Year in the first place! _That_ title is also Scarer exclusive!"

Well, yes, it was, but that was not the point right now. If Sulley did not stop this, then not only would he shoot down all of his chances of ever getting a Scare Card made of him, he would _also_ renounce his own Rookie of the Year title! He had come so far in so short a time, and now he was throwing all of that away – for _Mike's_ sake?

He would not have that. "Sul, can I say something really emotional without having you laugh at me?"

Now Sulley did turn around to him, shooting him that glare he was currently sporting. "I _never_ laugh at you for getting emotional!"

"Err… that's true," Mike admitted, "sorry." He paused for a moment, gathering his thoughts to come up with the best way of phrasing this. "Sul, we _bonded_ over Scare Cards. Do you have _any_ idea what it would mean to me to have a Scare Card of you?"

Sulley's look softened at the concession, and all of the fight seemed to leave him.

Seemed to. "And do you have any idea what it would mean to _me_ to have one of you?" he countered softly.

And for a moment, their eyes were locked in silent understanding. They both knew Sulley was not the only one to whom it would mean something.

Then the moment was over, and Sulley turned back to the two who were watching the small exchange in silence. "It's both of us or no one."

"Sulley!" Mike blurted out. But there was nothing he could do. This was Sulley's Scare Card – or at least it was _supposed_ to be! – so he was the one who made the decisions about it.

Waternoose seemed perplexed, and he exchanged a brief look with Lane. "Well, I'll make sure to pass on the message," he finally replied, and with a nod from him and a small wave from Lane, they both turned to leave.

"Wow, I didn't think about the Scare Cards!" Sulley exclaimed lightly, but Mike was not ready to just pretend nothing had happened. With a glare, he went to get the next file.

Sulley sighed. "Oh, c'mon, Mike, don't be like that! I did this for _you_, you know!"

Mike forced himself to calm down. Yes, Sulley had been doing this for him. He knew that. Still, it was utterly _pointless_ to try and force people to change their opinions on things which had been established facts for _decades_. He should know. He had spent the greater part of his life fighting a losing battle. "This is not gonna work," he pointed out, his back still to his friend. "I mean, I appreciate what you're trying to do, but there's just no point. All you're doing is to torpedo your own chances."

"I don't _want_ a Scare Card made of me if you can't have one, too!" Sulley insisted stubbornly. "Whether you like that or not."

Now Mike did turn around. So despite what he had just said, Sulley _had_ been considering his feelings; his friend just had an entirely different way of going about this. "It would have meant the world to me," he stated yet again.

Sulley crossed his arms. "It's not like this is over already." Then he grinned. "And by the way - actually, we bonded over Archie."

Mike had to smirk in spite of himself. "You call that bonding?"

* * *

**Note:** Trying an experiment here; this will have four chapters in total, but was originally planned as a one shot. Updates will be announced on my Twitter account UntoldStoriesMU.

Lane Picca is from the Fearbook, Vanity Scare is mentioned on Mike and Sulley's Scare Card.


	2. Agitation

**Note:** Thanks for the comments and favorites, guys; both praise and criticism are always welcome. Glad to know you're enjoying this.

* * *

Mike had actually managed to put the incident to the back of his mind where it was unable to bother him.

For about a day. But during the following day's lunch break, he had to discover that _everyone_ in the near vicinity seemed to be talking about the Scare Cards. Everywhere he went, whether he was pushing through a crowd, standing in line for food, trying not to get trampled by one of his larger colleagues, _everywhere_, there seemed to be no other topic but these blasted pictures. He even spotted Randall at one of the tables; the guy was smugness incarnate as he took in Fungus' excited chatter about how great Randall's Scare Card would probably turn out.

Actually, when Mike had fantasized about what getting a Scare Card of Sulley would be like, the fact that _every_ Scarer's photograph was updated with each new collection of cards had completely slipped his mind. The veteran Scarers, of course, were used to this, but the rookies especially sounded as if they had never seen a camera up close.

But that was not the worst part.

"They're gonna take _pictures_ of us!" Terri squealed upon sitting down at the table Squishy had saved for them all. "We're gonna be on _Scare Cards_!"

"You've never cared for Scare Cards before," Terry pointed out with a lop-sided smirk.

"There have never been any of people we _knew_," Art countered as he pounced onto another seat. "Or of _us_."

Mike bit his lip as he took his own place at the table. With their brothers having gotten assigned to a different Scare Floor, the regular lunches with them counted among the top highlights of his job, of course, but he got a feeling that he would not be enjoying this one very much.

Squishy was poking around in his bile tarts with his fork. "I'm not good with getting my picture taken," he muttered. "What if I don't look good in it?"

"Well, you won't be looking any better than you usually do," Terry quipped in good humor.

Don was frowning. "What are you saying, Scott, of course you'll look good! Just you wait, your Scare Card is gonna be amazing!"

"I bet Sulley's is gonna be the scariest, though!" Terri announced through a mouthful of soup, almost spraying his brother's hand with the stuff as it reached for a water bottle.

Sulley went rigid instantly. "Wha-… oh, yeah, I'm kinda looking forward to it, I guess."

"You guess?" Squishy repeated.

Mike gulped down his food around the lump in his throat. In the small instance of silence, he felt it sounded abnormally loud. But no one seemed to be paying attention to him at the moment.

Now it was Terry's turn to frown. "Sul, what's _with_ you lately? You seem off somehow. And people are saying you got into a fight with Waternoose yesterday; is that true?"

Sulley waved him off. "Nah, just a slight disagreement, don't you worry." He was trying his best to appear nonchalant. Trying, because Mike saw right through the act, and he wondered if their brothers were picking up on it, too.

Don definitely was. Something in his gaze gave that away. "That doesn't have to do with the Scare Cards, does it?"

"C'mon, guys," Mike cut in before Sulley could answer that question. "If Sul and Waternoose weren't getting along, there's no way Waternoose would train him all the time, right?"

"Oh, right!" Squishy agreed, perking up. "Mike, I wanted to tell you, I wish you could have seen me maneuver around the first kid's toys today, I kept thinking of how you taught me to do it!" That had been sort of random. Had Squishy only just remembered that Mike was present?

The others were chiming in with their own anecdotes about the morning now, and Mike did his best to play along, nod at the appropriate parts, slip in a stealthy bit of praise from time to time, that sort of stuff. But his heart was not in it. Too painful was the realization that _everyone_ from their fraternity would be getting their Scare Cards, everyone except for him. And no one seemed bothered by that fact. How could they not realize how much this was tearing him apart?

He had gotten too good at this, he knew. How _could_ he expect them to pick up on his bitterness even though, over the years, he had become an expert at masking it? That, and they probably had no idea what these Scare Cards meant to him in the first place.

Sulley knew, of course. Even if the two of them had _not_ talked about it the previous day, his subdued way of taking part in the conversation would have been a dead giveaway. But he did not say anything until their break time was over, until they had dropped the others off at their floor, dodged Randall as he had wandered off to his, and made their way over to their own.

With a few quick looks in all directions, Sulley seemed to want to make sure that no one was listening in on the conversation. "They don't mean anything by it," he then said in a low tone. "They're just so excited. You know they're like kids."

Mike gave a soft sigh. "What, you think I want to deny them this? It's not like they're doing it for the _purpose_ of hurting me, they just wear their hearts on their sleeves. That's a rather endearing character trait, really." And one he was deeply jealous about, actually. How could they be so open with their deepest feelings and desires? How did they know no one would use those to hurt them?

"They don't know what they're doing to you," Sulley insisted. "If they knew, they wouldn't be talking like this in your presence."

"If they knew, they wouldn't be talking like this _at all_," Mike pointed out when they turned the corner onto Scare Floor F. "Which means I would have effectively taken this from them. So, thanks for keeping quiet about it, I suppose."

"Who knows, you might get lucky," Sulley argued lightly, but Mike rolled his eye.

"Sul, _please_," he huffed. "At this point, we'll be lucky if _you_ get a Scare Card at all."

And that was just the problem. Now that the photo shoots were not just a vague future event anymore, but very much imminent, he grew more and more afraid that Sulley had hurt his own cause forever. Yeah, Waternoose liked him, yeah, people were back to obsessing about the Sullivan thing now that he was actually scaring again, but there was no way Sulley could pull a stunt like that and expect everyone else to just roll with it, right?

It had gotten to the point that Mike was a bit paranoid about being addressed without prior warning. He knew that was irrational, as Sulley was probably the one who would be informed if the creation of his Scare Card had somehow gotten canceled, but he could not help feeling that every conversation might just be the one that ended this small dream.

It was better when they were on their Scare Floor, though; he could concentrate on the work then and refuse to think about anything else. So over the course of the next few days, Mike managed to mostly keep the anxiety out of his thoughts, at least during their actual working hours. But it came back to him full force when, about a week later, Waternoose approached his and Sulley's station yet again. This time, Sulley was actually present to see their boss come closer, and despite his constant insistence that they should hope for the best about these cards, he seemed as wary of the upcoming conversation as Mike felt.

At least Waternoose was smiling when he reached them. "James. Michael."

"Mr. Waternoose," Mike reciprocated, and Sulley joined in with a small nod.

As always, Waternoose ignored him to turn to Sulley instead. "James, when did you plan on getting off work today?"

"Err…" Sulley shared a look with Mike before giving a shrug. "At about six, I suppose."

Mike frowned. What was the point to that question? Scarers had regulated working hours!

Waternoose clapped his hands in delight. "That's perfect. Ms. Picca got the clearance for the photo shoot, so if you could just stay at your station a little longer than that, I'm sure we'll get some nice, good-looking pictures of you."

Mike breathed a silent sigh of relief at the information. It looked as if both Waternoose and Vanity Scare were willing to disregard Sulley's completely out-of-line behavior on the matter. Good. This would not even have gone _half_ as smoothly if they had insisted on calling him out on it.

Smooth, of course, _would_ have applied if Sulley had just forgotten about the matter as well. "What about Mike?" he asked immediately.

Mike briefly closed his eye in silent defeat. Great, now Sulley _had_ ruined the entire thing.

Waternoose blinked a few times - and then he chuckled. "Why, of course I was talking to both of you!" And he bent down to send Mike a rare smile as well. "That is, if you didn't have any plans for the evening?"

Mike stared at him. He was faintly aware that he should probably respond to that, but his mouth would not form the words. This could not be happening, could it?

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Sulley's triumphant smirk. "Nah, we were just gonna go home," his friend answered the question for him.

"Perfect!" Waternoose decided once more, straightening up again, and then lightly clapped Sulley on the back. "So I'll leave you boys to your work now. Have a productive day!"

Mike was still staring when his boss turned and left the Scare Floor, and it prompted Sulley to chuckle. "See? Told ya."

He wanted to answer, to say something witty, but instead, he felt his knees grow week. A Scare Card? Of _him_? Was this really happening? "Is he serious?"

Sulley gave him a light, good-natured punch on the arm. "You deserve it, idiot, so stop acting as if the world is going crazy around you."

"Maybe _I'm_ the one going crazy," Mike whispered. Surely, there must have been some sort of mistake.

"Not far to go there," Sulley quipped.

At that remark, Mike snapped out of his stupor to kick his friend's shin. "Stop it, I mean it! I just…" He halted. He had no idea what he was trying to say. "It's… I… thank you." Yeah, _that_ was probably what he should be saying. "Thank you so much, Sul, I…"

"Stop it," Sulley muttered, clearly embarrassed. "_Someone_ had to stand up for you, and you seemed determined to not do it yourself, so… yeah."

"It wasn't something to be taken for granted!" Mike insisted.

And Sulley smiled at him. "That doesn't mean it wasn't necessary."

* * *

**Note:** Still to be continued, even if it _sounds_ like the end of the story. ;)


	3. Calibration

"I always feel great when the last kid of the day produces a full canister!" Sulley announced, stretching his arms over his head.

Mike smirked while switching off the station. "Technically, _you_ decide whether it's a full one or not. I bet you're holding back your best shot for the last kid on purpose so that you can be proud of yourself in the evening." In all truthfulness, though, he did not feel much like bantering. He hoped Sulley could not see the shaking of his hands. Something would probably go wrong. It always did. There was no way he would get a Scare Card made of himself, so he _really_ should not be getting his hopes up.

"Don't forget the paperwork!" Sulley teased, maneuvering through a crowd of Scarers and assistants headed for the exit so that he could go over to their desk and grab the file. "They say old Thorny is gonna retire in a year or two. We might just get a floor overseer who's not that lenient!"

Mike shook his head in annoyance, but he did have to smile when he took the offered file and scribbled the appropriate data into the designated fields. "Couldn't have that, right? Maybe you should put in a word with Waternoose; I swear the guy has a soft spot for you."

Sulley kept silent. Ah, damn, had that sounded jealous? He really had not meant anything by it this time. Yeah, it was not nice being constantly ignored by their boss, but at least for today, Mike would be equally as important as Sulley was.

Provided this did work out, of course. Drat, now he _had_ gotten his hopes up.

"Hey, boys!" That was Lane's voice, and sure enough, when they turned, they saw her approach with a large, black bag in one hand. Probably her equipment.

"_Boys,"_ she had said. She was talking to both of them.

"Good to see you again," Sulley greeted when she had reached them, and she went to put her bag on their desk before, indeed, taking out her camera and a tripod. "With which of us do you wanna start?"

Now she turned around to blink at him. "What do you mean, start? I need both of you in the same picture. There's only gonna be _one_ card."

"What?!" Mike blurted out, thunderstruck. "Then I want no part in this! I'm not taking Sulley's card from him!" How selfish would he have to be to deny his best friend something which he himself would have given anything to posses?

_That_ was what was going wrong. He should have known there would be no changes made to the system just because Sulley - or anyone, really - thought they _should_ be made.

"Mike, what are you _saying_?" Sulley shot back. "_How_ cool is that gonna be? Then _no one_ can deny any longer that we're a team!"

Mike turned to look at him, ready to argue, but then he caught the utter _pleading_ in his friend's expression. Sulley wanted this. They were obviously not the same in that regard. It did not matter at all how much it would have meant to Mike to have his own card; for _Sulley_, getting a card of both of them mattered more to him than getting one of his own. And refusing now would not be doing him a favor - it would _hurt_ him.

"All right," Mike relented, and he did not miss the huge sigh of relief Sulley gave. "Yeah, sure, Lane, whatever you say."

Fiddling with her equipment, she did not seem to have caught the temporary tension. "Great. If you boys could go near the doors; I want a picture with you two in your natural environment."

Only when she said "you two" did it dawn on Mike that this was _actually_ happening. She was taking a picture of _both_ of them. Suddenly a little wobbly, he briefly clutched the desk for support, but neither of the two seemed to notice.

Sulley was currently frowning. "Uh, by the way… why are you singling us out like this? Couldn't you take our picture the same day you take everyone else's?"

"There is no such day," she explained, placing her tripod on the ground now. "I make special appointments with every Scarer. It's gotta do with circumstantial factors - for example, I really wanted to use today's light's blueish hue for you two. I think it brings out your characters better."

Mike rolled his eye a little. Just a week ago, she had told him she did not know him. But to be fair, she sounded rather professional about this, so maybe she had read up on him?

If she had, she probably knew about their expulsion. Oh, wait, of course she knew, it head been the Campus Roar's headline that day, and she had been an MU student at the time. No, wait, but she had not recognized him at first. Hm. He was confused now.

"Well, and the doors for atmosphere, of course," she added.

Mike suddenly realized she had said that two times by now. "There are no doors anymore," he pointed out. "Not at this time of day. And we can't call any, either." He would probably lose his job if he called even a single door he was not supposed to call. Not that he had never fiddled with stuff that was off-limits, of course, but if _that_ was what ruined this entire thing, he would never forgive himself.

But she waved him off. "I'm talking about the stations; I can edit in some doors later."

Mike shared a look and a shrug with Sulley, then went to do as she had said. "You want me to take off the helmet?"

She was looking at them through the camera now and adjusting some sort of setting. "Nah, it makes it obvious which one of you is the Scarer."

Now _that_ had been a nice thing to say! It had almost sounded as if she thought someone might mistake _him_ for a Scarer!

"Stop right there!" she commanded. "Good. Now turn around."

Before they could actually start, though, they had to find the right position first. Several times, she just looked through the camera and muttered to herself, then either grabbed the tripod to place it somewhere else or told them to move a few centimeters. A few minutes into this little game, she went to pull a reflector out of her bag, unfolded it, and then somehow attached it to one of the door stations not visible in the picture.

When she thought she had everything ready, though, Sulley pointed to her camera. "You need to aim it lower, Lane, you're barely getting the top of Mike's head!"

"But then I'm not getting yours at all," she grumbled. "Wait, I'll have to get further back."

At some point, however, she seemed ready to go. "Good, I think it won't get any better than this. Sulley, look scary. Michael, can you do confident?"

Probably not right now. Not with the way he was still slightly doubting his good fortune. But he placed his hands on the sides of his body anyway, raised his chin and smiled, ready to play along with whatever she had planned. "Like this?"

"Not half bad," she praised, but she was frowning as she said it. "Sulley, I don't think 'scary' works here. It looks as if you two are in the same picture by accident. Try smiling."

"But I'm not good with smiling for cameras," Sulley argued a little petulantly. "Can't I just roar?"

Mike had to smirk to himself. What had happened to the showoff he had met in college? That guy would have gravitated to even the slightest hint of a chance at popularity, especially if there was a chance the moment would be eternalized in a photograph. Though Mike had to admit, he liked this humble Sulley a lot more than the other one. Especially because, if his friend had still had a tendency to boast about his feats, Mike supposed he would never have been able to cope with their job arrangements.

And he was pretty sure Sulley knew that.

"C'mon, smile for me!" she insisted. "Michael, tell a joke!"

Instead of making Sulley smile, the deadpan order only made Mike crack up. But at least Sulley was now smiling at _that_.

"Confident, Michael!" Lane chided. "Not hysterical!"

"Sorry," he replied through a fit of giggles. It had not been _that_ funny. He was indeed a bit hyped up about this.

She briefly shook her head at him before concentrating again. "Now, Sulley, keep that smile, but raise your hands as if about to scare me… I said keep it!"

"I'm not an actor!" Sulley insisted.

But she seemed completely unimpressed with that bit of information. "You'd better learn to be. Marketing and self-presentation are a _large_ part of a Scarer's life."

What was Sulley arguing about? He almost sounded like Squishy. Should he not be incredible at this? He had never had a problem with self-presentation during his college days. With a smirk, Mike raised both hands above his head and made that clicking sound and the accompanying gesture which Sulley had been so fond of back then. And indeed, now Sulley _was_ smiling.

"Great!" Lane exclaimed. "Now look at the camera, you two! Sulley, hands raised! Michael, _confidence_!"

And then, there was the first click of a picture being taken.

He felt Sulley's eyes on him now. But he had noticed it himself. It really _was_ happening, and it was happening _right now_.

"Okay, you can do better, both of you!" Lane called over cheerfully. "Sulley, _keep_ smiling, don't you dare stop now!"

After that, the clicks grew more frequent, her commands a bit more forceful. It was just as Mike had always imagined the photo shoots to be, actually. Being on a Scare Floor, listening to the orders of a camera person, striking poses… who knew what would happen with these pictures? Maybe one of them would end up as a poster, hanging on wide-eyed little monsters' bedroom walls?

"C'mon, smile!" Lane urged.

"I don't feel like smiling!" Sulley complained.

"I do," Mike whispered.


	4. Focus

Mike knew, of course, that it was a matter of patience now. He had no idea how long it actually took for Scare Cards to be made. He knew about the photo shoots, and he knew the cards were eventually sold, but how much time passed between the two was anyone's guess.

And as good as he usually was with being patient… well, admittedly, he was never good with being patient. But he could be if he really wanted to! This time, though, patience seemed to elude him. As much as he had enjoyed the photo shoot, some part of him was still convinced that something was going to go wrong, and he was pretty sure he would only be able to relax about this once he actually held their Scare Card in his hands.

Their card. Two people on the same card. It was as much a breach of the current system as having an assistant as one of the two people depicted. Well, okay, Terry and Terri would also get only one card, but for conjoined monsters, it was the standard procedure; for anyone else, it was practically a scandal. And now that the chances were high that this would work out, he could not help but to dread the reactions. The other assistants especially were the ones who worried him - would they be angry that he got to be on his partner's card and they did not?

"Mike, stop brooding!" Sulley commanded sharply, and Mike flinched horribly at the sudden voice right next to him. "Look, I know what this is about, but I really don't get what you're still worried about."

Trying not to look at their colleagues all around them, Mike gave a sigh. "This and that," was his vague reply. "But you're probably right." He would not delve into the details. He knew Sulley was prone to brooding as well, so he would be damned to give the guy more stuff to fret about.

Sulley eyed him warily. There was no doubt at all that he was not buying the reassurance for a second. "I think this is a bit much," he stated bluntly.

Mike rolled his eye. "Maybe I'm just having a bad day?" he challenged.

To his surprise, Sulley gave a chuckle. "Yeah, so bad that you're forgetting to call the next door."

With a low curse, Mike hurriedly shuffled through their files to find a kid they had not yet scared today.

It would not be the only time he spaced out. As Vanity Scare seemed to possess no desire to hurry up with this, for the next few weeks, Mike found himself mentally drawn back to the what-ifs. Now that it was almost certain the card would be made, part of him kept wondering if this had been such a good idea in the first place. What if people hated him now? What if they made fun of him? What if they made fun of _Sulley_ because of him?

Listening to their brothers gushing about their awesome photo shoots was not helping much, either. He and Sulley had not told the guys about their special arrangement. Actually, he was glad Sulley had gone along with that despite his reservations. But Mike was pretty sure they would be happy if this worked, and he really had not wanted to get their hopes up in case it did not.

"She _jumped_ when I roared at her!" Don kept repeating. "She actually jumped at least a meter high!"

"I thought the light thing was a nice touch," Terry commented, trying and failing not to look pleased.

Even Squishy seemed excited. "I hope they'll choose that picture where she did a close-up of my face, I'm sure that would look amazing!"

But all of that was still better than hearing _Randall_ talk about his pictures. Since the guy had started his little game of metaphorical tug-of-war, Mike had come to interpret malice into _everything_ he said or did, even if it was not there. He knew that, and he knew it was a problem, but by this point, he was not sure that was important any longer. If Randall wanted this, then Mike just had to do his best to avoid him as much as possible. Fortunately, even Randall seemed to have understood that tormenting Mike about the Scare Cards would have been too low a blow - he had seen him buy various booster packs, after all, and he was far from stupid, so it was safe to assume that he was aware of the implications.

It was after another one of their non-collisions at lunch that Andrew and Dan came running into the overcrowded cafeteria, waving several arms full of envelopes around. "Scare Card complimentary copies!" they shouted. "Every Scarer grab their own!"

Predictably, there was a mad rush for the bounty before Mike had even properly processed the words. It was all his former colleagues could do to dump everything onto a nearby counter and then get out of the way in time before they were crushed by the oncoming stampede.

"Complimentary copies?" Art repeated, frowning at the spectacle which was, fortunately, too far away from their table to get them involved. "What's that?"

Immediately, Mike felt himself falling into lecture mode. "Every Scarer gets a few copies of his own card for reference," he explained. "So that they can see if there are any errors on it, and maybe give some away to friends and family." And why had he not thought about that?

"I'll get ours!" Squishy declared, setting down his fork, and then more or less disappeared as he snuck off to squeeze between the other Scarers. He was probably the only Oozma who would be able to do this unscathed.

Not all of the people in the crowd were Scarers, though; for example, Mike also spotted Fungus getting shoved around by some of the bigger monsters. Looked like Randall felt above jumping into the fray, yet still wanted his cards as quickly as possible.

Out of the corner of his eye, Mike caught Sulley's look, and when he made proper eye contact, he could see his own nervousness reflected in his friend's expression for once.

_Now_ they would know the result.

The noise died down a bit, and soon after, they could see Squishy approaching with several envelopes clutched tightly to his chest. "There you go, guys. Art, this one's yours… Don, for you… this one for Terri and Terry… and I couldn't find yours, James…"

Mike had a small heart attack, but Squishy was already continuing.

"…but this one says 'Rookie of the Year,' so that must be it, right?" And he handed it over before eagerly tearing his own envelope open.

For a second, Sulley held it in his hand, but then - and Mike was not the least bit surprised about it - his friend turned and held it out to him, smiling. "Care to do the honors, Mikey?"

Arguing about who _should_ "do the honors" would probably be futile, he knew, so he just took what was offered, his fingers shaking. For some reason, part of him dreaded the inevitable questions from their brothers about why Sulley would willingly miss out on something like this, but they were all too absorbed in their own happiness to notice. Already, there were delighted squeals from Squishy and Terri.

With a last look at Sulley, who was still watching him, Mike carefully pried open the flap, reached into the envelope, and pulled out a sheet protector. And inside of that…

There were about ten of them, if he was not mistaken. They were brighter than most Scare Cards were, which was in no small part thanks to the light streaming in from the skylights. The style was slightly off, too, as the eye-catcher with the company name was missing and it didn't say "Scarer" next to the MI logo; instead, there was a white banner designating this as the Rookie of the Year card.

But it was the soft blue color scheme that really caught his attention. It was everywhere - in the background, the border, even the MI logo, but also in Sulley's fur and, well, Mike's helmet.

Because there he was, right there in the picture next to Sulley, smiling into the camera as if he had always belonged right where he was standing.

Maybe he had.

"Well, she actually found one where you're smiling," he breathed. Something told him that was not quite the right reaction, but another one would not come to him.

He could feel Sulley's hand on his arm now, and when he looked up, he could see that his friend still seemed a lot more interested in watching _him_ than in looking at their card. "I suppose I couldn't _help_ smiling after seeing you so happy, buddy," Sulley muttered, giving him a light shove.

With a small giggle of which he was not sure where it had come from, Mike looked back at the card still in his hands. This. This was as close to Scaring as he would ever get. Much closer than he had thought he would get. And it was real.

But he was not given much more time for contemplation when a sudden shout right behind him made him flinch.

"Oh, my gosh! Oh, my gosh, Mike! Mike! _Mike_!"

Before he knew what was happening, Squishy had ripped the card out of his hands to stare at it open-mouthed and in complete awe, all five of his eyes round like golf balls. "How did this happen? Why didn't you say a _word_? Guys, look, _look_!"

But of course, they were already rushing over, each snatching a card of their own to see what Squishy was shouting about. Actually, now they were _all_ shouting, which made it a bit difficult for Mike to distinguish the reactions. But it all counted as happiness, he supposed. They were hugging him, too, and got tangled up over it as each one wanted to reach him first.

"Why didn't you _tell_ us?!"

"How did you make them _do_ this!"

"Oh, we were feeling so sorry for you, but we didn't wanna say anything, we knew you wouldn't have appreciated that…"

Ah. Mike had to smile to himself. He had kept wondering why they were being so uncharacteristically inconsiderate about this, but it seemed they had just been trying to not hurt his feelings by addressing it.

It felt so great to let their reactions wash over him. Squishy's elation. Terri's cheering. Art's spontaneous cartwheeling that was drawing looks from everywhere. Don's brilliant smile. Terry's complete indignation about having been left out of the loop.

Still, this was not _his_ card, exclusively. "Guys, Sulley's on that card as well…" he mumbled.

Art stopped cartwheeling at hearing the words. "And that's great!" he exclaimed. "You look really cool in that picture, Sulley! Scary, but not mean!"

Sulley's already huge grin widened a bit. "C'mon, I wanna see yours!" And he went over to inspect their friends' cards.

Shooting a small, but fond look back at the little treasures still left inside the sheet protector, Mike made to get up - he _really_ wanted to see the others' cards as well! Was it too much to hope that he could have one of each of their complimentary copies? He would have to own the real thing, too, of course, but for now, this was the best he could hope for.

But he did not get very far.

"What's with the commotion?" someone was saying. Looking up, he recognized George who was leaning over the table to find out what everyone was so excited about. "Oh, wow, Wazowski, you got a card, too! That's cool!" And that was all he said before grabbing the sheet protector and passing it around. "Hey, look at that!"

Mike was a bit alarmed if he and Sulley would ever see their cards again, but that evaporated quickly when, one after the other, all kinds of people came over to have a look, and the cards were passed around from hand to tentacle to claw for closer inspection. There were Scarers and assistants, mailmen and cafeteria workers, all sorts of people, really… and they were all delighted to see his and Sulley's card. Some of them even came over to congratulate them, and many expressed satisfaction about the fact that they were both so appreciated now after all the hard work they had put into climbing the ranks.

For a while, Mike was just gaping at it all. Then, he went about accepting handshakes and claps on the back. At some point, he even started smiling. He had had absolutely no idea that _so_ many people in this company knew him and Sulley, and that they actually _liked_ them, enough to be happy about their accomplishments instead of being jealous and spiteful.

If he was completely honest with himself, he should not be enjoying this. In all candidness, Sulley had used his name to make this happen. Sure, the outcome was good for both of them, and it seemed no one had gotten hurt over it, but Mike had despised that sort of behavior back in their college days, and just because he was on the receiving end of its benefits now, that did not mean it was any better.

Then again, what other choice had Sulley had? He had felt that Mike deserved to be on a Scare Card, and if this was the only way to assure it happened, could he be blamed for going down that route?

Now the commotion subsided, and one after the other, the cards found their way back to the table where he and his brothers had opened their envelopes. Extricating himself from a last, heartfelt embrace, Mike rushed over to count them, to make sure that they had not lost what was so very precious to him. But he counted only nine cards. It seemed one had gone missing.

Before he had the chance to succumb to disappointment, though, he felt a clawed hand gently touch his back. "Hey, kid, do you mind if I keep this?"

That voice…! Whirling around, he found himself looking up at one "Frightening" Frank McCay - no, just _Frank_, he had to remind himself for the umpteenth time - who was slightly waving with the elusive card in hand. "That would be great; I'd really like to have that one among my collection!"

And just when Mike had thought this could not get any better! He felt his knees grow weak. Frank McCay? Wanted _his_ card?

His and Sulley's. He had no right to just give this away. As amazing as it would be, there just were not enough cards - if he counted one for Sulley, one for himself, one for his family, one for Sulley's mom, and he would bet anything their brothers each wanted to have one as well…

Maybe Randy wanted one?

But immediately, Mike bit his lip. He could have _kicked_ himself for that thought. _Michael Wazowski, you do know better!_

"We'd be _honored_ to let you have it," Sulley said from behind him, a smile audible in his voice.

Frank smiled at both of them. "That's great!" And giving them a thumbs-up, he disappeared back into the crowd.

Mike stared after him for a moment, but then he was yanked out of his state of awe by the whistle signaling the end of the lunch break.

"Ah, dammit, we totally forgot to eat!" Art observed, but he did not seem to mind much as he fondly clutched the sheet protector containing his own cards to himself.

Mike briefly made eye contact with Sulley, and as always, they did not need to waste time with discussing their division of labor. With a smile, he grabbed their cards to put them back into the protector, and that back into the envelope, while Sulley hurried to return both their trays.

"Guys, can we meet in the locker room after work?" Mike asked their brothers on the way away from the cafeteria. "I haven't even seen your cards yet!"

"Sure thing!" Don promised.

"See ya then!" Terri added cheerfully, and already, the others took a turn and were out of sight.

"Hey, Mike, I haven't really seen ours, either," Sulley chuckled. "Would you mind?"

Mike fished one of the cards out of the envelope he was still clutching tightly, the same way all of their brothers had done as well, and handed it over. "I owe you," he muttered, avoiding his friend's gaze.

"Nonsense," Sulley argued lightly while looking at the picture, then turned the card around to read the info on the back of it.

They had reached their own Scare Floor now, and some of their colleagues were waving at them. Apparently, the news was already spreading.

"Hey, _that's_ a nice thing to say," Sulley commented, and tore his gaze from the card long enough to politely wave back.

Realizing that he had not looked at the backside himself yet, Mike got hold of another card. There was information about both of them - most likely gleaned from their employee information here at the company - but what Sulley was referring to must be the description, right?

And then he found it. After a brief retelling of their climb through the ranks, there was a small prognosis on their further development. _"Scare watchers expect big things in the future from this team - Vanity Scare predicts the unconventional duo will 'revolutionize Scaring.'"_

The commentary surprised him so much that Sulley had to keep him from bumping into their desk. Vanity Scare must be really impressed with them to be dishing out such high praise. Was this why this whole thing had worked? Because they felt, just as Sulley did, that he _deserved_ to be on this card? Or was that not it at all, and it was, in fact, a jab at their disregard for the established rules?

Dammit, or it might just as well be that they meant it! Why could he not just accept the praise?

Maybe because he could not remember the last time someone had praised him for something.

Beside his brothers, of course.

"Yes, that's really nice," he decided, carefully placing the cards onto the desk, and he felt almost giddy with glee when he realized that he could look at these in detail for the entire rest of their shift, each time Sulley entered a door. "Especially after we acted up like that."

"You think so?" Sulley gave a shrug, but his eyes radiated an intensity that did not quite match the nonchalance. "I'd say Team Wazowski and Sullivan changed the world."

Mike stared at him for a moment, but then - and for once, he was not surprised about it - he found himself smiling.

_Now_ this all made sense to him. _That_ was why this had all seemed so incredibly surreal. Those words, his own, spoken in such childish naivety, suddenly seemed a tenfold more powerful when echoed back at him.

He had had no idea that sort of thing was actually possible.

* * *

**Note:** And that's it. Hope you enjoyed the ride, and I'd love to hear your thoughts. Praise, constructive criticism, and flames are all welcome. See you next time!


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